Confrontation sequel to 'Resolution'
by DRL
Summary: Wufei runs into someone that he would rather have avoided


Confrontation

(sequel to 'Resolution')

By DRL

_This is a follow-up story to ''Resolution'. It stands alone fairly well, but if anyone needs a reminder of what 'Resolution' was all about, it can be found here on MediaMiner_

Wufei sighed as he watched the traffic light turn from green, to amber, to red. Three light changes and he had advanced what, 10 metres, perhaps 12? He inhaled deeply then expelled the breath, directing the exhalation upward so that the rush of air caused a stray wisp of hair that had broken free from the tight confines of his ponytail to flutter momentarily, then fall limply against his cheek. He tucked the strand of hair behind his ear with a practised gesture, then pulled forward another few inches. As the traffic light cycled through its well-established colour sequence once again, he observed that he was approaching the junction to a side street and although he had no idea where it would take him, he resolved to take it. Wherever he ended up, he surmised, it could not be any worse than the traffic jam he was currently languishing in.

He flicked on his left indicator and turned smoothly into the street. It was a residential terrace of tall, narrow, townhouses built from a deep terra-cotta brick, each uniformly endowed with a large, glossy black door at the top of a short flight of stone steps, sparsely adorned with highly-polished brass door furniture. Each house was railed in by iron arrowhead-tipped railings, equally as shiny and black as the doors, which extended up the steps to form banisters, and the look was completed by an iron boot-scraper at the edge of the top step – extremely elegant but entirely superfluous. This was the most expensive district in town, and Wufei could well imagine the grandeur behind these doors, hinted at by the elaborately draped window treatments he glimpsed as he proceeded along the street, as well as the intricate chandeliers he saw emitting their starburst illumination in one or two of the rooms.

As he neared the end of the street he saw a woman on the pavement outside one of the houses, standing beside a smart, two-seater convertible and with a start Wufei realised that he knew her. She was very tall for a woman, and probably a little too lean for her height. The last time he had seen her she had not been as thin, and he felt a small pang of guilt as he thought of the probable reason for her recent weight-loss. She was elegantly and expensively dressed in a close-fitting black sleeveless dress and knee-high alligator-skin boots with high spiked heels and painfully pointed toes. She wore a short string of large pearls at her throat, with matching earrings, and her brown hair, which he knew to be long and straight, was caught up at the nape of her neck in a complicated chignon. The style was severe and somewhat old-fashioned for a woman of just 26, as Wufei knew her to be, and the fringe that fell lightly against her brow failed to soften the look, as did the round, wire-rimmed spectacles she wore. She looked very angry and as Wufei drew nearer he saw her kick one of the car's tyres in frustration. Seeing her distress, and before he could think about what he was doing, he deployed his hazard lights and stopped his car alongside hers. He opened the door, got out of his car (belatedly wondering what on earth had possessed him to stop), and approached her apprehensively.

"Lady Anne, my name is..." Wufei began but he was cut off abruptly.

"I know who you are." Her tone was sharp, but not overtly hostile, which surprised Wufei, although she looked at him with flinty eyes, brows raised and arms folded across small, high breasts.

Having now chosen this irrevocable course, Wufei was determined not to be intimidated by her, although equally, he did not want to deal too harshly with her; he had caused this woman enough pain.

"I saw you as I was passing and you seemed in some distress. I wondered whether you needed any help..." He tailed off as he saw her expression soften.

"That was why you stopped?" She asked, and her grudging surprise was palpable.

"Yes." Wufei replied, and he stepped up the kerb to stand beside her.

He noticed with chagrin that she was a whole head taller than he was, plus a few inches. The heels had to help, but even in stocking feet she had to be almost as tall as her husband, who was a head and shoulders taller than Wufei – this he knew very well indeed. He stood beside her, arms akimbo, and looked down at the car.

"What seems to be the trouble?" He asked.

"Stupid thing won't start." She said, glaring acidly at the car. "It was alright yesterday, but now..." She threw her hands up in despair.

"Do you have the keys?" He asked.

"In there." She waved a vague hand in the direction of the recalcitrant automobile. "Now I'm going to be late for my hair appointment." She muttered as she folded her arms across her chest again and tapped her foot impatiently.

Wufei opened the door of the small car and slid behind the steering wheel. He turned the key in the ignition. The engine reluctantly turned over, coughed and spluttered a little, but did not catch. He climbed out of the car and turned to her.

"You're out of petrol." He said simply.

"Is that all?" She said, as though she were disappointed that it was not more serious. Wufei removed his suit jacket, hung it on one of the arrowhead rails behind him, unfastened his cuffs and began to roll up the sleeves of his shirt.

"This car takes regular unleaded, right?" He asked.

When she nodded confusedly he crossed to his own car, which was still double-parked with its hazard lights flashing. He opened the boot and unfastened the bungee rope that held a green plastic petrol can in place. He then proceeded to decant the contents of the can into the small car while Lady Anne Kushrenada looked on with surprise and approval. When the can was empty, he placed it on the ground at his feet and looked up at her.

"You can go on to your hair appointment now." He said. He looked down at his petrol-smeared hands, raised one to his nose and wrinkled it in distaste.

"Thank-you," She said with genuine fervour, "Thank-you so much."

"You're very welcome." He replied briskly. He turned and reached out to retrieve his jacket from the railings, then stopped and sniffed his hand again.

"Oh please," She said, taking up the jacket, "Come inside and freshen up."

"Thank-you." Wufei said gratefully. He did not relish the idea of driving back to the office swathed in petrol fumes.

Lady Anne stooped to retrieve her handbag, which had been carelessly thrown onto the passenger seat of the car, then ascended the stone flight of the house directly behind them. Wufei took a moment to return to his car, replace the petrol can and park up properly, before following her in. During this time a smartly uniformed maid had answered Lady Anne's insistent peal on the doorbell.

"About time." She said curtly as she swept past the girl into the cavernous entrance hall. "Tilly, show this gentleman where he can clean his hands, then bring some tea to the drawing room." She then disappeared into the bowels of the house without a backward glance.

As Wufei cleansed his hands at the washbasin of the sumptuous cloakroom he had been shown to, he tried to formulate a plan of action. He would wash his hands, take his leave of her and get the hell out of the house as fast as he courteously could. But he couldn't just leave without saying something – not with... with what lay between them. But what exactly did lie between them? They had never met and Wufei didn't even know how she knew who he was. Anyway, what on earth could he say to her? What **_did_** one say to a woman whose husband one had stolen? Wondering for the 100th time what on earth had possessed him to stop and help her, he dried his hands on the fluffiest towel he had ever seen, checked his reflection in the mirror above the basin, and emerged cautiously from the cloakroom.

The corridor outside the cloakroom was silent and empty and Wufei cursed himself for a fool as he realised that he was holding his breath. In anticipation of what? Had he expected Lady Anne to be pacing the floor outside the cloakroom, waiting to pounce on him as he emerged? He retraced his steps until he stood once again in the entrance hall. He looked helplessly around, but was saved from having to guess the whereabouts of his hostess by the unmistakable tinkling of crockery. He followed his ears and found himself in a large and very beautiful drawing room. The tall windows were draped with swaths of primrose coloured silk, trimmed with ivory fringing and secured with large decorative tie-backs made from thick ivory silken rope, from which dangled tassels that appeared to Wufei to be cascades of brilliant cut diamonds, but were probably merely crystals of lesser value but equal beauty. The walls were covered with a bold primrose and white striped paper to a mid-height chair rail painted white, with plain primrose below. The floor was intricately designed hardwood parquet and was liberally strewn with silk Persian rugs of pale, subtle hues. The furniture was an eclectic mixture of ancient and modern, and as his eyes roamed the room he espied Lady Ann seated in a gilded Louis XVI fauteuil that had been upholstered in deep gold velvet. A silver tea tray bearing two delicate porcelain teacups and saucers, together with a matching teapot stood before her on a burr walnut Ruhlmann coffee table.

"Come and sit down." She said without looking up from her task of pouring tea. Wufei approached, but he stood beside the empty chair that was obviously meant for him, since his suit-jacket was draped across the back of it. Recalling that it was considered a breach of etiquette for a gentleman to be in the presence of a lady in his shirtsleeves, he quickly slipped it on.

"I er..." He began as he dressed, intending to tell her that he didn't actually drink tea, but she interrupted him, as if anticipating his thoughts.

"It's green tea," She said, "I thought you might prefer it." When he still failed to take the seat she looked up at him. "Don't tell me you have to get back to the office?" She asked as she regarded him.

"Well I..." Once again she rode over his objection.

"Oh come now," She said, "You're sleeping with the boss so make the most of it. You can do whatever you like." She gave him a wry smile and placed the teacup down on the table in front of the empty chair.

Wufei felt colour flood his cheeks and anger flared within him. Her casual remark had instantly relegated his relationship with Treize to the level of a sordid office dalliance, which was far from the truth. He set his jaw and remained standing.

"Lady Anne, I..."

"Oh sit down." She said irritably, and in spite of himself, Wufei complied. He looked down at the watery liquid in the teacup, but he made no move towards it. He felt that any control he had ever had over this situation was rapidly slipping away and he attempted to rally his defences, but the force of her character was formidable and this he had not anticipated.

He hadn't really known what to expect from his lover's lawful wife. Treize had not told him much about her; for obvious reasons she never came up in conversation all that often. Indeed, most of their time together was spent trying to forget that she even existed, although this was never really possible. Wufei had heard of her of course; he would have to have lived on the moon not to have done so. Wealthy socialite and wife of aristocrat business tycoon Treize Kushrenada, she frequently featured in the society pages and gossip columns, occasionally with her husband. Of late however, the stories had not been about the receptions and parties they had attended and the gowns and jewels she had worn, but rumours about the break-up of their marriage after only three years. Much to Wufei's surprise and relief, the scandal had broken in rather a low-key manner. Although he had finally gotten what he had only dreamed of throughout his and Treize's two-year affair, Wufei did not relish being dragged through the tabloids in a blaze of media attention. This never happened, however. The whole thing was kept very quiet and his name was never mentioned. Wufei never discovered how Treize had achieved this, despite asking him many times. The only response to his enquiries he received was 'don't worry my love, I would die before I let them do that to you'.

At work it was the same. Wufei had expected to be the talk of the office, but once again this hadn't happened. The fact that the P.A. to the Vice President of the company had been having a torrid affair with the President himself, and the two of them were now living together seemed a matter of supreme indifference to Wufei's co-workers. There were no knots of people congregating in small groups at the water cooler, whispering surreptitiously and falling silent as he passed, no sidelong glances cast in his direction, or eyes ostentatiously failing to meet his as he passed in the corridor. In fact there had been no discernable reaction at all, and Wufei sensed Treize's hand once again, although how he could have managed all this Wufei was at a loss to imagine. Even his boss Milliardo Peacecraft, Vice President of Kushrenada Industries and Treize's lifelong friend had not treated him any differently. The only difference in their relationship was that whenever Milliardo and Treize met socially, Wufei accompanied them as Treize's partner. Perhaps it was this 'easy ride' he had been vouchsafed that had made him bold enough to contemplate forcing a confrontation with the wife his lover had cast aside in favour of him. Wufei was not sure, but he now hoped that his boldness was not about to backfire. He picked up the teacup and took a sip of the soothing beverage as if it could offer him some form of fortification.

"How is it that you know who I am?" Wufei asked, going directly to what he most wanted to know. Lady Anne laughed a bitter, mirthless laugh.

"Once I discovered that my husband was having an affair, it didn't take me long to find out whom it was he was seeing." She replied. "I merely hired a private enquiry agent." Wufei blenched at the thought of a raincoated private eye spying on his and Trieze's love with a telephoto lens and a hidden video camera. "Oh don't worry," She said, registering his reaction, "His instructions were to find out who the third party was and to get evidence, just in case it was needed - for a divorce hearing." She added, in response to Wufei's confused frown. She laughed scornfully. "Don't look so shocked. When you steal someone's husband, that is usually the inevitable result."

Wufei drew himself up at this. Although he had often thought of the situation this way himself, having the injured party herself levy the accusation at him sent him scrabbling for his defences.

"Lady Anne," He began tersely "Let's get one thing quite clear from the start. I didn't set out to take Treize away from you. **_He_** came to **_me_**. I cannot imagine that he would have done so if everything was alright at home. After all, one has to wonder why a man would begin to look elsewhere after only a year of marriage." Lady Anne gave a hollow laugh.

"Oh yes, the battle cry of home-wreckers the world over – 'There had to have been something wrong with the relationship to begin with'. Well, it might surprise you to know that I actually agree with you," She paused to take a sip of her tea, then continued, "But strangely enough, it doesn't make the betrayal any easier to bear."

"Would you call it a betrayal?" Wufei asked.

"Wouldn't you?" She replied, quirking an eyebrow. "He's supposed to be my husband but he's sleeping with his secretary."

"I'm **_not_** his secretary." Wufei said, but the objection sounded as petty to him as he was sure it did to her. As if in corroboration of his thoughts, she shrugged as though the point was irrelevant, as of course it was.

Wufei conceded that he would be perpetually on the back foot in this situation and yet again he questioned his own motives for deliberately letting himself in for this. She was going to beat him mercilessly with the stick of his having broken up her marriage, and he had no option but to bear the blows with fortitude. He could not attack her, for what exactly had she done that was wrong? She had been more sinned against than sinning. It suddenly struck him that his motives in engineering this meeting between them were purely selfish. He had known that this would happen, that all the pent-up feelings of scorn, spite and yes, possibly even hatred that she bore towards him would seep out, like pus from a festering wound. It might even make her feel a little better about the situation, having confronted her rival, but it was really his own conscience he was salving. This was his ulterior motive. This was his self-inflicted penance for what he saw as his own sin, despite his earlier declaration.

Yes, he had been deliriously happy when Treize had finally left his wife and come to live with him at the beginning of the year. Six months had passed and everything had been wonderful. Wufei felt that life could not get much better, save for one small thing. Having gained his heart's desire, he could not wholly eradicate the one small, nagging doubt that gnawed away at him - the fact that his gain was another's loss. He had not given Treize's wife much thought during their torrid affair, beyond the feelings of resentment that frequently arose when he considered that she was the one thing that kept Treize from being wholly his. Now, however, she was often in his thoughts as he wondered how she was taking this desertion by her husband. If Wufei was honest with himself, he would have to admit to feeling a modicum of sorrow on her behalf and a great deal of guilt on his own. This was the reason he was here – in an attempt to absolve that guilt.

"Lady Anne," He asked, "Did you love Treize?" She seemed taken aback by the question and indeed, her brow darkened as though she thought it unwelcome. Then she smiled a tight-lipped smile.

"Love?" She said silkily. "Oh yes, I suppose you are green enough to speak of love as if it were the be-all and end-all. So his smelly feet and unbearable snoring haven't yet dashed those rose-coloured spectacles from your eyes I see. Don't worry, they will." Wufei saw her evasion for what it was, and he answered calmly.

"I **_do_** love Treize, Lady Anne, and those things do not matter to me. If you had ever loved him, they would not have mattered to you either." Anger flared in her brown eyes, then died.

"Touché." She said with a wry smile. "You're quite right wrong though," She continued, "I did love Treize. I loved him with a passion that you could not begin to imagine, but it was completely unrequited. He was as indifferent to me as I was devoted to him. You see, he was attracted to men, not women, and he married me knowing that. Treize has a cruel streak." She gave Wufei a pitying look. "I suspect you might find that out someday." She sighed heavily.

"I should have seen it a long time ago," She continued, "All the signs were there. We've known each other for a very long time, did you know that?" Wufei nodded, and she continued. "Our parents were friends, so as children we were often thrown together. I think I fell in love with him when I was quite a child. He was older than me and I was no more than an annoyance to him back then. It's surprising to see how little has changed..." She muttered _sotto voce_.

Wufei was suddenly overcome by feelings of sorrow and pity for the young woman seated before him and he had an overwhelming urge to cross over to her and put a comforting arm about her thin shoulders. He resisted however, and kept to his seat and his side of the coffee-table. He merely smiled encouragingly at her.

"I was no more than an annoyance to him." She repeated, looking not at Wufei but above and beyond him into the depths of the room as she delved deep into the depths of her memories. "It was Milliardo that he was interested in. Even when we were children Treize had time for Milliardo only. When we got older, he had eyes for Milliardo only. The writing was on the wall long ago, but I went to the altar in complete ignorance of Treize's true nature. He knew, of course, as did everyone else, I suppose – everyone but poor, naïve little Anne, who was completely blinded by her love for her hero, her hero who was in love with his best friend." The sound of Wufei's teacup clattering noisily onto its saucer checked her and she drew her gaze back to him. Her eyes narrowed momentarily, then widened. "Treize and Milliardo, you didn't know?" Wufei gaped wordlessly, and Lady Anne laughed. "It looks as though our Treize has been holding out on you, the sly devil.

"Yes, Milliardo and Treize were lovers once, but it was all over before we were married. Their respective families put a stop to it. I knew nothing about it until way after we were married. I always knew that they were close, only I was too naïve, or perhaps too stupid, to acknowledge what was plainly obvious to everyone else. It was why our parents encouraged us to marry. His family saw it as a way of keeping their son and heir from the path of iniquity, and my family saw it as a way of uniting our family with the rich and powerful Kushrenadas. So everyone was happy – everyone apart from Treize and I.

"It was a disaster from the start. Treize was never unkind to me, not intentionally anyway, but he simply didn't love me. I'm not even sure he liked me, and for someone as devoted to him as I was, that was very hard to bear. We played the part of the happy couple socially and in public, but behind closed doors things were very different. He had given up Milliardo by then, but that was a small mercy. Our marriage was a farce. We attended functions together by appointment, but the rest of the time we spent apart. Even though we lived in the same house, we very seldom spoke to each other or spent any more time together than was strictly necessary. He seldom touched me and never held me in his arms, and as for sex..." She gave a mirthless laugh. "He occasionally went through the motions when we were first married, albeit infrequently, but after the first year his efforts in that direction, such as they were, dried up completely. I suspect that this was when you appeared on the scene. I'll give Treize his due though, he did his duty by me as a husband, if no more than that. He provided for me, settled my accounts and gave me a generous allowance. In fact, he gave me everything I wanted..., except for his love..., and his attention."

"He flatly refused to leave you." Wufei said quietly. "No matter how much I pleaded, cajoled, whined and bullied him." Lady Anne looked both surprised and pleased at this, but she made a dismissive moue with her heavily rouged lips.

"I'm sure that this must have served his own interests more than anyone else's, Treize not being over-endowed with altruism." She murmured darkly and although Wufei had levied this selfsame accusation at Treize himself, he leaped to his lover's defence.

"He did it for you," He shot back, "He..." But he got no further. The tuneless melody of a cellphone rent the air and he rifled through the pockets of his suit-jacket as he mumbled an apology. He found the phone and checked the brightly lit display screen for the caller's identity. It was Treize. He shot Lady Anne a sidelong glance as he answered the call, realising that this was the quickest way to get rid of him.

"Hi." He said with forced nonchalance.

"Sweetheart, are you okay? Milliardo told me that your meeting wound up ages ago, but that you hadn't returned. Where are you?" Wufei could hear the anguish and worry in Trieze's voice and a calming warmth spread through him at the thought of the other man's concern for him.

"I'm fine." He replied softly. "I'm..." He was prevented from continuing by Lady Anne, who rose from her seat, strode across to him and grabbed the phone from his hand.

"He's with me Treize." She spoke into the instrument in a honeyed voice. Then she laughed. "Yes, Anne. Surprised? I'll bet... Don't worry darling, I won't bite him... Not at all, in fact we've been having quite an interesting little chat... Oh we just ran into each other... No, you can talk to him when he gets back to the salt mine. I'll send him on his way soon..., I said no Treize, goodbye!"

The last phrase was delivered in a sharp, angry tone. Lady Anne depressed the button that broke the connection, then the one that switched off the phone. She resumed her seat, crossed one booted leg over the other and placed the tiny phone on the coffee table in front of her, well out of Wufei's reach.

"How touching." She said, her voice dripping with irony. "He's worried about you. Worried about what I might be telling you about him more like." She added bitterly.

"Lady Anne, I should go." Wufei said and made as if to rise. The room was suddenly uncomfortably close and stuffy, and he needed air.

"Yes, I suppose so." She agreed. "If I know Treize, he will be on his way here already." Wufei smiled tightly. He knew that she was right; the thought had occurred to him also. They both rose.

"There's no need to see me out, I'll find my way." Wufei said quickly, anxious to be on his way, back to familiar territory, back to Treize. Lady Anne came around the table and handed him his cellphone.

"Thank-you for helping me," She said, "I'm very grateful. And if you're ever passing, feel free to drop in." Her eyes dropped to the carpet. "It gets lonely sometimes." She said quietly. Wufei smiled and turning, walked to the door. "Wufei...?" He turned back. "I wish you and Treize well, please believe that, but I wouldn't trust him any further than I could throw him. Believe me, I know what I'm talking about. As I said, he has a cruel streak. I would hate to see him hurt you, but I suspect he will."

Wufei hurried out into the street and back to his car, his heart pounding. He slid behind the steering wheel, retrieved his cellphone and called Treize.

12


End file.
